My Wish

This is the story of me…how I lived…how I died…how I was saved…and how I was reborn. They say that there is a special kind of love that happens only once in a lifetime. I don’t even know myself how I got so lucky to have found the man of my dreams. Some say its fate and that everyone deserves to find their happy ending-unfortunately for me and my beloved that’s not exactly how it happened, at least not the first time which soon led to a second chance. I thought the first time I lived I had everything I could ever wish for but, little did I know that on the day that I died I made a wish that proved that not only do dreams and wishes come true, but that love is eternal and lasts forever. But let’s start from the top my name is Genevieve Cromwell and this is my story.

For the last few months, I keep waking up in the middle of the night and I don’t know why but it’s now become a daily routine for me. Every day when I wake up, I wish I could just sleep a little longer and enjoy my dreams that seem to be almost repetitive. I dream about a man that I’ve never met, at least I don’t think I have, and the two of us are in the middle of a desolate road in Tennessee. We are just standing and staring at each other I want to say something but for some reason I can’t. He then approaches me, and he gets closer to me and almost to the point where he could have kissed me...then I wake up. When I come out of my dream like state it felt like it happened like he was there, but I’m always reminded it was just a dream. Throughout some days when nothing is going on I just sit and draw the man I dream about. The man I wish I could talk to, and I wish I could touch but, sometimes it just seems so unreal that how am I falling in love with a man I’ve never met.

Even though this has been happening for a short period of time it feels as though I have always been thinking about this man for a long time. I’ve been keeping this a secret from my friends and family, but it has now come to point where I can’t continue to keep it bottled up anymore. The timing to come clean with everything that’s been happening couldn’t have been more perfect. My best friend Liz and I meet every Tuesday for coffee-even back in college it was always a weekly ritual of ours.

I walk in and I can see Liz sitting at a table with her coffee in her hand and mine sitting right across from her. Sometimes when either of us are running a little late we’ll order each others coffee. I’m pretty easy I’ll drink anything as long as it has caffeine in it, but my all-time favorite is a matcha green tea latte. Liz and I are like sisters we pretty much like the same exact thing but her taste in coffee is different compared to mine, she just likes hers with cream and sugar.

I make my way over to the table and Liz greets me with a hug, and right away she can tell that I look exhausted. From all those sleepless nights I probably do.

“You look tired! What’s been going on?” with a deep voice of concern.

I’m very nervous to tell her because I don’t want her to think I’m crazy but since we’ve known each other for a long time I should have no reason to hide things from her. Plus, she also works as a criminologist for the Cookeville PD and if its' something that is not normal I could see someone. But what am I saying this is not even normal!

I take a small deep breath and I just say what’s been going on, and to no surprise she looks stunned and shocked because she knows that this is so unlike me. I then say to her “you must think I’m crazy!”, and I lower my head and I’m just staring into my coffee cup thinking she’s going to get up and walk out the door and never speak to me again. But then she tries to get my attention.

“Hey Genevieve…look at me…it’s alright.” Sounding with even more concern. I raise my head and look back at her. “I don’t think you’re crazy. How long have we been friends now 8 years? I have no reason to think that at all, and just like you I’m actually stunned about at this.”

I then precede to ask her “when we were in school did you ever read about anything like this happening to other people?”

Liz lowers her head a little and says “its actually very rare that this happens to have the same reoccurring dream repeatedly. But back then with everything I read about that, there usually was no explanation for how or why it happens. Upon further investigation with some of those cases there was a lot of background checks and psychiatric tests, and they all came back normal.”

This absolutely shocks the living hell out of me but there must be an explanation for why this is happening. I then look up and there he is. Liz is still talking to me, and I zone her out but not intentional. My eyes are just so transfixed on him he is tall around 6’2, dark brown slight curly hair, go-tee, and his intense green eyes. His eyes are what always drew me to him the most in my dreams but now seeing him for the first time I know that this is no longer a dream. I want to get up and walk over and talk to him but I’m almost to frozen to move. I think I was in almost a state of shock and then Liz starts snapping her fingers in front of my eyes.

“Hey Earth to Gen! What are you looking at?” Liz is just speechless and now she knows that this proves that this isn’t normal of me.

I quickly snap out of it “I’m sorry Liz I thought I recognized someone over there”. But when I look back again, he is gone. He just came and gone like the speed of light. I then think to myself was he really there or was it truly my imagination. Yet I can’t help but wonder if he saw me. I then turn my attention back to Liz and say, “I’m sorry I just don’t know what to do with something like this”. She then suggests I should start writing the dreams down and that it might help because when people have a lot of stuff on their mind its good to write it out and maybe if I continue to write them out, I’ll have more insight.

Little did she know Liz had no idea just how right she would be about that! The following day after writing the dream down things started to change that night when I fell asleep. In the dream that night I was with him again and we were both standing a few feet apart on this quiet desolate road again surrounded by thick dense forests. However, what’s different this time is that I’m looking around and I see a street sign for the first time “Rose Brooke Road”. I am so fixated on the sign and the name on it sounds so familiar that I can’t understand how because, I am almost 100% sure I have never heard of that road.

The next morning, I write this one down as well but I’m not ready to do some digging into this just yet because I still can’t help but feel there is more to these visions. Over the next few days the visions have started to evolve more, the next one I had was that it was me and the man I’ve been dreaming about. At least I think it was us-the clothes we were wearing aren’t exactly something we would wear unless we were in the 80s. We both looked like were straight out of the Breakfast Club. I had a multi-color patch top on with bell bottom jeans and of course the classic black and white shoes. He on the other hand looked like an actual greaser with slick combed hair that probably had half a bottle of hair gel in it, and a black leather jacket with jeans. What was odd about this dream is that I had no control over what was going on and it was almost like watching a movie. I’m looking around and I can see that we are in a 1969 dodge charger, and we are pulling up to the Red Horse Tavern. This was a place I already knew existed it was a local dive bar that’s been in Cookeville for over 50 years now-its one of those bars where couples go when they want a cheap drink and to just hang out. We both jump out of the car and we're walking in holding onto one another. This is the first time we are embracing one another in the dreams, and I can feel the most unconditional love I have ever felt coming from him and it’s the kind of love where I don’t want to be with anyone else but him. I’m still wondering why am I feeling this way and why is this happening but as the dreams continued on I now have come to the realization what if these are memories from another time. But now I wonder whose time is this, is this someone else’s or was this mine?

Over the next few days the dreams have pretty much been picking up right where they left off each night. But not all the dreams have taken place where they last left off. What’s been happening in the other dreams was that we both had parents that did not want us to be together. His disapproved of me because they thought I wasn’t good enough and my parents thought that he was just a phase and that one day I would move on and marry a rich doctor or something. But the recent one is what almost brought me to tears. We meet back at our favorite spot in the woods and he gives me a present. It’s a blue rose pendant and on the other side it says “My Wish!” He told that I was his wish come true and that he has never felt this way about anyone before, and he then says to hell with our families lets leave and make a new life. I agreed with him and he picks me up and twirls me around in excitement. It may have been a dream or a vision but I could just feel this powerful love that could not be broken.

With everything that’s been happening so fast it’s just become so overwhelming, so I decided to go to Burgess Falls for a little fresh air to try and clear my mind. I can’t even remember the last time I was out here but, whenever I need a break from the town or when things are bothering me, I come out here. Just something about nature has always been the best place to recharge myself from the hardships I’ve dealt with. Before the dreams my life hasn’t been that bad at all except for a few bad relationships that almost felt like they were never going anywhere. Sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder was I unable to love or be loved. Just something about the men I was seeing just never seemed true or real to me it was like something kept telling that they were never the right one for me.

As I'm walking through the forest, I can’t help but take in the serenity and even though there is a little fog its just so surreal. I’m probably just a quarter of a mile from the falls and I start to hear what sounds like footsteps up ahead but, this shouldn’t come as a surprise for me because it’s a public park. But I guess I can only dream that I would have the whole park to myself. I get closer to falls, and I start to see someone through the fog standing at the overlook that looks down at the falls. I take a glimpse and I can see that it’s a man but as I get closer, and the fog starts to clear a little I can see that its him! It’s the same man from both my dreams and from the coffee shop. I freeze once again and can’t move, I think about backing up slowly and maybe he won’t see me. But I’m in the woods where everything makes a sound and I step on a branch, and it snaps. He turns and looks at me and our eyes are gridlocked we can’t stop looking at each other. Then this overwhelming sensation comes over me and its almost like a gravitational pull towards him. After just staring at each other for what almost seemed like an eternity I finally turn and start to walk away and pretend I didn’t just see him again. There usually is a time and a place for everything but why is this happening to me but, unbeknownst to me to it was affecting him as well.

I look over my shoulder and hope he was just a figment of my imagination but, as I’m looking, he is following me!

He calls out to me “Hey, hey wait a minute…STOP, PLEASE!”

I can’t because this just can’t be real and this just can’t be happening. I start to speed up a little and he’s still asking me to stop but the next thing that comes out of his mouth I was not expecting to hear. “I’ve been having dreams about you!” I stop dead in my tracks, and I allow him to catch up to me to talk.

I want to pretend I didn’t just hear those words come out of his mouth so, I ask him “what did you just say?”.

He says after finally catching his breath “I said that I’ve been having dreams about you. Now that I can clearly see that you are real, I am hoping I can get some answers.” He pauses for a second almost hesitant to say something else and says “I also thought I saw you last week at the coffee shop and you were with a friend.”

Okay so two things come to my head just now, one, so he did in fact see me at the coffee shop, and two he wants answers. If he wants answers trust me that has so far been the one thing I’ve been seeking for the last few months is answers but so far I’ve just been lost as him with all this. But I am thinking that finally confronting one another is the only way we are going to figure out what’s been happening with the two of us. So, I finally break my silence and speak.

“Well, what if I told you that I have been dreaming about you too and that maybe we aren’t crazy after all?” I tried to throw a little humor into it hoping it can bring a little sense of reality to all this.

As he’s looking dead hard at me he then asks.

“So, um…what’s your name?”

“Genevieve…Genevieve Cromwell!”

“That’s a pretty name”

I start to blush a little “Thank you and what’s yours?”

“I’m Aiden Sharpe”

I freeze and stumble again just trying to gather my thoughts and I just can’t keep this bottled up anymore and even though I finally just met him. Like a flood gate I finally decide to just let it all out at once.

“I don’t know how or why this has been happening to us? But I assume its been happening to you around the same time that I have as well. I personally don’t know how to continue to deal with this because this just can’t be happening is it, because this is just too crazy to be real!” I fall to my knees because this is something that should be straight out of a fantasy romance novel but, this is now my fantasy romance coming true.

He gives me a look that I can pretty much read and that we are both exactly on the same page about all this but, being in love with one another through dreams that’s on a whole new level for me. I turn away from him just starring off into the distance and he pulls me back to him.

“Hey its alright. I know this doesn’t make sense for either of us but, how much of the dreams do you remember?”

“I actually decided to start writing them down after the first one kept repeating itself and then I started to have new ones.”

“Like the Red Horse Tavern.”

“Yes!” I say in disbelief but amazed that he just said that same exact thing I’ve dreamt about. I then tell him about the first dream too and that was start of everything changing which was the name of the road. I then ask him if he remembers dreaming about it.

“Do you remember the dream about the street sign that said Rose Brooke Road?” He then gives me that same look again.

“Yes, I actually do remember that one quite well, but I wonder if that might be the connection to all this.”

I shake my head and agree with him I then slow reach for his hand and he at first resists but then he grabs mine. Just being able to physically touch him for the first time in reality feels unreal but I couldn’t resist. There was just something in me kept wanting to reach out for him. I then look up at him and say, “So let’s go find out!”

We decide to go to the local library and search the town records for these people. I didn’t know what we were going to find out, but something brought us together and some force was trying to tell us something. We walk in and I ask the librarian if there are any historical records on Rose Brooke Road and he is a bit of an older gentlemen. He raises his head, and he's a bit nervous and quickly sends us to records section R-2594.

I then thank him for helping us and look back at Aiden and say, “did he seem a little anxious about telling us the history of that road?”

“Yeah, it almost seemed like he didn’t want to tell us anything about it. Then again he’s probably spent to many hours here during the day and was not expecting to help anyone this late in the evening.”

We walk over to the records section and sure enough we find the record book. As we are flipping through the pages, I’m thinking maybe we should have asked for a page number but towards the end of the book we find it and no wonder the librarian was a little anxious to tell us. There it is clear as day in black and white the headline says,

“TRAGEDY STRIKES YOUNG COUPLE”.

Aiden and I are just gawking at each other, but we continue to read the story it says that a young couple were travelling along Falls River Road when their car slide off the side of the road during a torrential rainstorm. But upon further examination of the wreck vehicle after the storm had cleared police saw what looked like some rear damage to the vehicle. It was suspected that someone else was involved in the accident, but no further evidence or suspect was found. But there was more we scrolled to the next page and there is a picture of the couple and their names. “Robert “Robbie” Barlowe and Rose Brooke”

There is another newspaper clipping and it reveals that the roads name was changed to honor Rose Brooke.

There is no way either of us were making this up anymore the proof is right here right in front of our eyes. Its uncanny that we both look just like them. So, what was the point of all this to know how two star crossed lovers lost their lives in a tragic accident. I look back at Aidan.

“There has to be more to this?”

“I agree but everything is right here”

“So what should we do now?”

“I don’t know maybe something else might happen and we’ll both find out more.”

I can’t help but wonder where do I go now from this with Aiden do we just walk away and pretend like this never happened. But my heart is telling me to not let him go. We both head outside and I can’t resist it anymore I just have the urge to kiss him. I stop at the end of the stairs in front of the library and Aidan does too. He places his hand on my shoulder and I place mine on his and we both lean in closer and not even within a few seconds both our lips meet each other’s.

As we are kissing my brain is flooded with what are now memories to the night of the accident and as the car swerves off the road and crashes down into the trees. We were both thrown from the car, I was barely alive, but I could see Robbie didn’t survive. I crawl over to him and lay next to him holding his hand as I slowly meet my fate. I look back at my necklace and flip it to the other side and read the inscription “My Wish”! At that moment with my final moments, I make a wish as I am clutching on to his arm “I wish that we could be together again… forever!” After that I close my eyes and I was gone.

At that moment we let go of one another I’m looking at Aiden and its clear we both saw that but now I finally understand. We were always meant to be together, and for the first time I am looking at him as if it’s the first time I’ve set my eyes on him. I then speak.

“A wish come true at last!”

“For real. I still can’t believe that this really happened-back then and now!”

“I know and I know that going forward with all this is strange but I’m willing to see where it goes from here. What do you think?”

“To be honest I’m not too sure myself but whatever happens I’m glad that I’ll be right here with you…always!”

We kiss again and after all these years of wondering why I always struggled with love. Even though this love may not seem ethical to others but, they don’t have to know a thing. All I can is that I have once again found the man of my dreams and I never want to be out of his arms again. I promise with this second chance that I have with Aiden that I will cherish every moment with him. I would never trade or give him up for anything in this world.

A few days later we are both walking through downtown passing all the shops and I notice something in the window of a thrift shop. A necklace that looks all too familiar!